Board Members

Shannon Duffy has split his life in the labor and social justice movement. He is from North County and is married, with five children and eight grandchildren. For the past twelve years he has served as the Business Representative for the United Media Guild, a CWA affiliate. He is the current Bread & Roses Board Chair. His acting career was launched when he was cast as the despicable character Vance Muse in the Worker Theatre sketch “R-T-W Exposed.”

Mary Barber, a SLU graduate, has focused her volunteer efforts toward voter registration and turnout. Other focuses include arts organizations that educate, advocate and activate communities to support rights and dignity of working families, immigrants, and incarcerated individuals. Presently she is Principal of The Reputation Experts, LLC and has expertise in the development of strategic message platforms and deployment of engaging content across the spectrum of print, digital and social media.

Kristian Blackmon is a native of St. Louis. Her passion lies in the fight for black liberation, injustice and oppression that negatively impacts ALL people. She is the create and curator of two art based projects, Invisible No More that speaks to the plight of Black Women and I STILL love her which is a celebration of Women in Hip Hop. She is the former regional organizer of the economic justice organization, Missouri Jobs with Justice. A Beloved Disciple of Saint John’s Church.

Ann Haubrich is an adjunct faculty at Webster University’s Arts Management MFA program and teaches cultural policy. She has co-produced and co-hosted KDHX’s Literature for the Halibut. She previously served as managing director of Prison Performing Arts and executive director of Interfaith Legal Services for Immigrants, she served as executive director following her help to establish the ASC Foundation. Other achievements include founding the Community Arts Training Institute after a decade with the Regional Arts Commission.

Monti Hill is a Texas native and graduate from Prairie View A&M University with a Sociology degree. I run political building network (Black and Brown Leadership in Politics) founded in St. Louis, Missouri to support organizations and people to accomplish goals that maximize the potential for Black and Brown people in a compassionate and efficient way. I’ve been given opportunities to work with political leaders, community builders, youth, and local residents around the region and have enabled me to develop not only personally, but valuable and transferable skills in a fast-paced environment.

Sukanya Mani has over 9 years of experience as a teaching artist for all ages. Based in St. Louis, she is a visual artist who works with acrylics, watercolors and mixed media. She has worked on various projects with the St Louis Art Museum, Bread and Roses, Contemporary Art museum, Chesterfield Arts and the History Museum.

Gwen Moore is the Curator of Urban Landscape and Community Identity at the Missouri History Museum focusing on race, ethnicity and race relations in St. Louis. Gwen has been associated with the museum since 1998 working as a researcher, community programmer and oral historian. Her current area of research is concerned with social movements with a particular interest in civil rights activism.

Laura Stefacek is employed at Rosenthal, Packman & Co. as a certified public accountant with 20+ years of experience. Laura is stirred to action by social justice issues and has an abiding love of the arts. Bread & Roses Missouri is an excellent combination of these interests.

Doug Swanson joined the University of Missouri in February of 2017 as the UMSL Labor Studies Program Coordinator after over 20 years of working in a variety of roles with Labor Unions, such as member activist, officer, staff and administrator. Doug has an associate degree in Management from Sauk Valley Community College, a bachelor’s in Union Leadership and Administration from the National Labor College, and a Master’s in Labor Studies from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Doug’s work in labor has taken him from Illinois to Wisconsin, Alaska and Maine before arriving at UMSL. Other interests include labor history, workplace empowerment, and patterns of shifting work, the changing definition of employment as well as equity of wages and their impact on communities. Doug is also a member of the Workers’ Rights Board with Jobs with Justice, the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) and the LERA Gateway Chapter.

Roseann Weiss has 30 years of experience in arts leadership in nonprofit arts institutions, community organizations, and galleries. She was most recently the Director of Artist and Community Initiatives at the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis (RAC). In this position, she guided the Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute – an innovative, cross-sector program centered on the belief that art can amplify the voices of communities, be a key factor in regenerating neighborhoods and be a powerful agent for social change. She also led RAC’s artists’ support programs, grants, and fellowships as well as creative community initiatives, which included identifying resources for new projects. Roseann has curated contemporary art exhibitions, served on public art committees, arts panels, juries, and boards and continues to lecture and lead workshops about the intersections of contemporary art and community in national settings.

Chris Worth is the Organizing Team Manager at Paraquad. He has more than fifteen years of experience in community organizing. His team supports a grassroots coalition of people with disabilities and allies, the Coalition for Truth in Independence, which is one hundred members strong, and partners with Paraquad to promulgate disability rights in the St. Louis region. Chris holds a Master’s Degree in painting. His art takes on issues of social, political, and economic justice. He exhibits both locally and nationally, and is well-known in the Appalachian region as an artist and activist. He also leads a project known as the Tuscher Institute, a platform to train in the areas of disability culture, community organizing, and civic engagement. Chris holds training and/or certificates from the Industrial Areas Foundation and Missouri Jobs with Justice. joined the University of Missouri in February of 2017 as the UMSL Labor Studies Program Coordinator after over 20 years of working in a variety of roles with Labor Unions, such as member activist, officer, staff and administrator.

Bronwen Zwirner worked as a labor educator and union representative for more than twenty years, in St. Louis, Chicago and New England, before moving back to St. Louis. She headed a local fair housing agency here for several years. Now retired, she has followed her passions through work with Prison Performing Arts, Redevelopment Opportunities for Women and as Bread and Roses Missouri’s Secretary. She lives in University City with her husband.

Staff

Joan Suarez is the Executive Director of Bread & Roses Missouri (BRM) and the founding, now Emeritus, chair of the Missouri Immigrant & Refugees Advocates (MIRA), both spin-off organizations of Missouri Jobs With Justice. She serves as a Community Co-Chair on the Missouri Jobs With Justice Board of Directors.